Propelling Social Ventures – Register now!

Social entrepreneurs are paving new avenues for social change by turning world challenges into compelling opportunities. Following the Pecha Kucha art of concise presentations, 8 up-and-coming impact entrepreneurs will each have 400 seconds to share their lessons on how empowered entrepreneurship is creating social change by disrupting the status quo across Canada and on a global scale. From local food systems, to human health technology, international development, and local economic systems the featured social entrepreneurs will share the lessons they learned in their struggle to change human behavior. Come engage with and support the changemakers growing their innovative ideas in the Coast Capital Savings Innovation Hub accelerator program at the Sauder School of Business.Read more >

We kick off the evening with an inspiring keynote by Vicki Saunders a serial entrepreneur and leading advocate for entrepreneurship as a way of creating positive transformation in the world. Vicki is the founder of SheEO, an organization promoting disruptive global platforms to accelerate, finance, and celebrate women-led ventures on their own terms. Having co-founded and run four ventures in Europe, Toronto, and the Silicon Valley, Vicki was selected as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum. Vicki will share the lessons she learned that led her to pledge to start living out loud!

Storytelling needs the right kind of music to be complete. Lydia Hol will set the creative mood of the night with her voice, her acoustic guitar and mandolin. Since the release of her debut EP, Boats, in 2012, Lydia has toured the country from coast to coast, filling rooms with her songs and stories. She was in the Peak Performance Project, has shared the stage with folk legends such as Dar Williams and Sylvia Tyson, and become a favorite on the CBC. Lydia’s studies in English literature, and time spent living in Ireland flavors her performances with a storyteller’s honesty and charm. Her new full length record Heading North, recorded with Frazey Ford’s producer John Raham, captures a delicate, elegant take on folk.